Finally: Hiatus Season Is Over

A few months back, I lamented the fact that the networks have chosen to put shows on hiatus rather than show a handful of reruns during the season. Well, after months of wondering where the hell all of my favorite shows went, hiatus season is finally over. And I still hate it.

Someone mentioned that it helped continuity, because you don't lose the storyline following, say, a post-sweeps rerun block. But how does it help the continuity of a show like Lost, which is in the middle of a three-month layoff? Or Heroes, which took a month and a half off before showing the next six episodes, only to take another month off before the final five?

I can see delaying the start of a show, like 24, which is showing 24 episodes in a row. Sure, it starts later, but there's a new episode every week. But what does taking a couple of months off accomplish? What you end up with is the same amount of episodes in the same amount of time, but with no reruns. Which means a shitload of downtime and me not remembering what happened on the show last time it was on.

That's why I like networks like FX, which, in their "money" timeslot (Tues 10/9c), rather than ever show reruns, they air series with half as many episodes. Every week is a new episode, and, when they run out of episodes, they start a new series. Last year, in that single timeslot, FX aired full seasons of The Shield, Thief, Rescue Me, and Nip/Tuck. Nearly fifty episodes and no reruns. In that same timeframe, ABC showed 20 episodes of Lost, 14 of which aired before June.

The networks totally got this thing under control. No wonder most of their programming sucks.